Democrats Propose Commission To Investigate Spying

metalman writes "Wired has a story on a proposal by House Democrats to 'establish a national commission — similar to the 9/11 Commission... to find out — and publish — what exactly the nation's spies were up to during their five-year warrantless, domestic surveillance program.' The draft bill would also preserve the requirement of court orders and remove 'retroactive immunity for telecom companies.' (We've discussed various government wiretaps, phone companies, and privacy violations before.) But it seems unlikely that such an alternative on phone immunity would pass both the House and Senate, let alone survive a Presidential veto."

Comments

Dems grandstanding so far

[Phoenix666]

I agree with you that this is what they've been doing--posturing while the country and Constitution burn. Perhaps they think it will help them win the Whitehouse.

And it is frustrating to watch them do that when they were elected to a majority to put a stop to the run-away corruption and incompetence of the other side.

But the FISA fight is not partisan. Bush and the neoconservative leaders in Congress want a free pass to break the law and spy on all Americans. But Americans, left, right, and center, don't want to give it to them. As much as we have lost the last 8 years, there still is a core of decency in the American soul, and enough paranoia to give government, any government, carte blanche.

See, it's fine to have those powers when your party is in power, but the trouble is that only works as long as your party is in power. The fear is that your party will lose power, and then those powers will be turned against you. The thought of Hillary Clinton, for instance, in the Whitehouse with the powers Bush and Cheney have arrogated to the Executive branch makes my blood run cold.